


Christmas is a time to spend with loved ones but a tweet will have to suffice

by natigail



Series: Phan Reality One Shots [4]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Being separated from your loved one, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, David Beckham cologne, Domestic Fluff, Holidays, Home for Christmas, M/M, Mention of family not accepting you, Twitter, Yule log, missing each other, so many tweets, tweets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 03:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9950003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natigail/pseuds/natigail
Summary: Dan and Phil go home to their respective families for Christmas but they suddenly become very active on Twitter, tweeting about random things. Only Dan and Phil are able to read between the lines within every tweet.Throughout the story are attached real tweets by Dan and Phil.





	

**Christmas 2016**

When you’re used to be together almost every moment of every day it feels odd to be apart for extended periods of time. Dan and Phil had completely intertwined their lives together, both on a professional and personal level. They never went a day without talking and both of them would feel an odd ache by just being apart from a few hours. 

Gamingmas was coming to an end and December so far had been a heck of a ride. None of them had felt entirely confident when they’d say they would do a video every day until Christmas. It wasn’t like they had a block load filmed, they would have to film almost every day. For someone who usually put up maybe a video a week between the two of them across their three channels, 24 videos in a row was a lot. 

Dan had casually joked that they should just stay in their flat over Christmas exploring all the different endings to Undertale. It was partly a joke, an exaggerated feature of his personality – like how he pretended to be the worst loser ever. He wasn’t a good one but he always played up his reactions to the extreme.  

“We have families to go home to,” Phil had reminded him. Phil found Dan’s almost compulsion to interact with every pixel a tad annoying at times but it was also an endearing quality. He had to admit it paid off more often than not and in this case going all the way back to the beginning had paid off. Asriel’s words had almost made Phil cry. They had already been playing for hours and it was late and Phil still needed to pack for going home. He had bought most of his presents but none of them had been wrapped yet either. 

Once they turned the camera off after filming the final video, Dan slumped back against his chair. Phil did the same; momentarily forgetting about the wheel that had snapped off earlier this month and almost fell colliding backwards. Dan’s hands found the back of his chair in a second, steading him, and sending Phil an amused chuckle and subsequently rolled his eyes. 

“We actually managed to film 24 videos, Phil,” Dan said, feeling pride well in his chest. At first none of their subscribers had believed them, laughing as they were some of the most inconsistent people with uploading videos ever. However, a week or so into gamingmas their viewers had started to count on them and the pressure had risen. They had to sacrifice a lot of things, like when Dan went home early from their management’s Christmas party, but it had been worth it. 

“Yes, but we still have a lot of editing to do,” Phil countered. 

Both of them were a bit sick of editing by now and looked forward to a calm ending of the year, though both kind of wanted to work on AmazingPhil and danisnotonfire videos, as their main channels had taken a back seat for the moment. 

When they were both editing on the 21st, desperately trying to get things done before heading off the different sides of the country, Phil had the adorable idea that he wanted the room to smell festive. 

He’d gone down to retrieve his Christmas Flames candles, which he still couldn’t help but think of it was how Santa on fire smelled. The red wax didn’t exactly help. And Phil being his usual self, he didn’t think to wait to light it but did so promptly before walking up the stairs. 

He should have known that he’d trip. Clumsy was practically part of his branding. 

He exclaimed a quiet yelp of surprise as the lit candle fell from his hands and he used his arms to catch himself.

“Phil?” Dan called out with that certain intonation that he always used when Phil was off going things he shouldn’t be doing. It was almost as if Dan could just sense it in the air after having been living with him for so long. 

Phil was terrified that the flame would catch on fire and he would accidentally burn down their entire flat. It would mean that the landlord wouldn’t see the cracked tiles or the black drag lines along the walls, but Phil didn’t particularly feel like that was enough to justify the burning down of their home. 

By some Christmas miracle, the candle just tumbled off to the side and went out and having not been lit for long hardly any wax spilled out. 

“I’m okay,” Phil called out to Dan. 

“What did you do now?” Dan shouted back and Phil could hear him get up from his comfortable editing spot. Dan had an ability to make any chair, cushion, sofa or bed mould to his impression and become his and Phil had always envied that.

“Nothing,” Phil assured him and picked up the candle and did his best to pretend nothing had happened when Dan appeared at the top of the stairs and glanced down with one hand poised on his hip. 

Dan didn’t press the issue any further but he found Phil’s tweet an hour later. They had an odd dynamic sometimes, when they’d tell things to their followers first, especially if it was something embarrassing. They liked just casually tweeting about their domestic life. They didn’t often tweet @ each other as it was a reminder of a time before they knew each other and tweeting had been one of the ways Dan had been getting Phil’s attention.

They’d gone back and deleted a few of the most embarrassing ones, the ones that would imply too much but old habits die-hard and instead of opening his mouth and telling Phil that he’d seen the tweet, Dan typed up a reply.

Phil’s phone got the notification and Phil looked up and glanced down at his phone before looking over at Dan. 

“Hashtag branding? Really, Dan?” Phil asked when he’d read the other’s tweet. 

Dan shrugged. “I’m stuck with danisnotonfire thanks to my teenager random phase, so I might as well make the most of it. I still think my video called DAN IS ON FIRE is hilarious. If we can’t make fun of ourselves, then what do we have?”

“Nothing,” Phil agreed. “Literally nothing. Our content is basically just a compilation of blooper moments.”

“You’re going back home tomorrow,” Dan noted, for no reason in particular. He just felt like he needed to bring up the topic. He’d be leaving soon after and Dan wasn’t quite sure if he was ready to be away from his safe space that he shared with Phil. He loved his family but he knew it would be a lot to be surrounded by family members non-stop, not to mention the odd conversations about what he did for work and why he wasn’t married to a sweet girl yet. 

“We’re both going home to our respective families,” Phil stated. “Aren’t you excited for Christmas?”  

“Of course,” Dan rushed to say. “I am. I love Christmas, you know that.”

Dan didn’t have to go on to tell Phil how he’d probably been happier putting together the tree and decorating their home with Phil than he would be opening presents with his family. Phil was fully aware of how Dan felt about going home to Wokingham. Christmas time could be difficult for a lot of people and for some it wasn’t this perfect thing that everybody wanted it to be. 

Dan was scrolling through Twitter now, to briefly procrastinate editing for a bit more. This final chunk of the Undertale video was a pain in the bum and Dan doubted whether he’d be done before into the early hours of the morning. He shouldn’t really be putting it off but he checked up at his mentions and stumbled a across someone using one of the latest YouTuber based meme. He hit retweet before he thought twice about it.

Phil’s phone buzzed again and he looked up the retweet and Phil moaned in complaint.

“I did not say that I nearly died!” Phil argued. “I just said that it was a Christmas miracle that I didn’t light myself, the flat or you on fire.”

“You didn’t say that last part, I did. Clearly, you’re not concerned for my safety one bit,” Dan teased. 

He was going to miss this effortless banter between himself and Phil. He’d be confined to small talk with distant relatives. He didn’t speak to his family often enough, not as casually as Phil did with his, and it was always a strain to get back into talking to them. 

They didn’t quite understand what Dan did and he secretly thought that they were convinced that everything would be ripped out from under him one day and he’d be left with nothing. He had had worries like that himself but it didn’t help that he could see his worst fears ever present in his parents’ eyes whenever he visited them. 

Phil was looking forward to going back north and hang out with his family. He’d always been a very family oriented guy, and back when he hardly had any friends, he could always count on love and support from his family. Martyn had been a jerk occasionally when they were growing up, like when he abandoned him on Phil’s first day of school, but he loved his big brother dearly. They were much closer now and had a great relationship and Phil was so happy his brother ran danandphilshop.com for them. 

They didn’t make it to bed before 3 AM. Phil finished editing the Sims video before Dan was anywhere near done with the Undertale one but Phil stayed up in solidarity. He couldn’t leave Dan to finish on his own. However, he couldn’t stop the yawns. 

“Phil, you’re making me yawn every other minute,” Dan complained and rubbed his eyes while his mouth snapped open in yet another yawn. 

“Sorry,” Phil muttered under his breath, voice low and tired, which matched Dan’s perfectly.

“Go to bed,” Dan ordered as if Phil was a child and not a nearly 30-year-old man. 

“Go sleep, Phil,” Dan rephrased, his voice softer now. “We’ll say goodbye tomorrow, okay? Just go sleep, you’re making me feel horrible for keeping you up.”

Phil caved and walked off to his room where he fell asleep immediately. 

The following day, they separated and heading off on trains in different directions felt odd. They didn’t make many trips by themselves anymore. 

Phil and Dan could feel themselves fidgeting more than they normally would and they missed someone to chat to, when they came across a funny video or stupid meme on their phone.

It was never planned but whenever the two of them separated, their Twitter activity spiked. Usually, it was linked to them going to new places and seeing new interesting things to tweet about, rather than what could happen within their flat. However, there was an underlying reason that none of the acknowledged out loud. 

They’d seen their viewers speculate of course and they had no doubt about the amount of conspiracy theories about the phenomenon. 

They liked to keep each other updated. They experienced a lot of things together but whenever they ventured out by themselves, they both instantly felt the pull to talk to each other. Phil had once been so excited that he couldn’t stop updating Dan, who’d just come in the door after having been absent for 12 hours, while they were filming a gaming video.

Family time was great and Phil found it lovely to be with his family again. It was a bit of a shame that they didn’t still live in his childhood home, the place with sketchy dark halls and ominous family portraits. The layout of Phil’s old home had freaked out Dan when he’d come to stay for the first time and Phil had revelled how the boy had clung rightly to him when something made him jump.

Phil put on a Santa filter and made a little GIF that he posted on Twitter. He knew Dan would have him on notifications when they went home for Christmas, despite not usually having it. He used to only have Kanye West on notifications, but due to recent statements, that had changed and Phil couldn’t help but revel a tiny bit in knowing he was the only one Dan had on notifications. 

Dan would never admit that he turned on Phil’s notifications once he got on the train. He brushed it off to himself as just a need to check up on him, to make sure he was doing okay back home with his family. The reality was that he would just miss him and he wanted to know what Phil got up to. 

It was in the evening when Phil first tweeted and Dan chuckled out loud. He shouldn’t be on his phone, he could practically feel his mother’s eyes bore into him but it was Phil. He sighed as silently as possible and put his phone back into his pocket. 

He had not been here for more than a couple of hours and he was already feeling a bit suffocated by it all. It was lovely to see his parents and brother but he felt so out of place here. He’d changed so much over the past years and he felt like he’d grown in a different direction than his family members.

He always felt like I was silently defying them still, having dropped out of university to become “a full-time internet homo”. The slip of his tongue in that fated live show had haunted him and continued to do so. He’d meant to say hobo, of course. 

Dan skyped Phil late at night, before he went to sleep. Skype would always have a special meaning to the two of them and it was something they reverted back to whenever they went apart. It was a far cry from back when Dan was eighteen and quite miserable but seeing Phil’s smile on the screen made everything better. Just like it always had. 

Phil didn’t ask how it was going. 

“You looked ridiculous in that Santa tweet,” Dan said as a greeting. 

“I looked festive AF,” Phil said, putting emphasis on AF in a way that almost made Dan cringe. Phil loved to make fun of trends and memes and sometimes Dan had a hard time distinguishing when he was kidding or being genuine. 

“Did you open your laptop just to see if I was online and about to call you?” Dan asked. It was such a Phil thing to do. Phil would always check up on Dan. 

Phil gave him a knowing look and left it at that. 

“We couldn’t go without saying goodnight, could we?” Phil eventually said. 

Somehow, what was supposed to be a five-minute chat had turned into an hour. Phil was happily sharing everything that he’d done during the day with his family and Dan contributed to the conversation as best he could. He spent several minutes just talking about how good it was to see Colin again. 

They both wanted a dog. They’d wanted one for so damn long. 

Reluctantly, they said goodbye and closed their computers. Both of them had thought back to the time when they’d fall asleep on Skype and essentially just sleep with the sound of the other’s breathing. None of them suggested that they should do that but they reminisced about it.  

The following day seemed to drag on for Dan. He wasn’t sure how time was moving so damn slow. The wifi was shitty as always and last year he had offered to buy a new router for his family house but his parents wouldn’t have it. They thought he was buried in his phone and laptop enough as it was.

Dan had to edit the PINOF 8 bloopers, which had been sitting untouched on his computer for nearly a month. He hadn’t even had time to look at it with how time consuming gamingmas had been. 

After Phil had edited the original video, he’d sent all the spare clips to Dan and there was a lot. They always seemed to over-film and it had almost become a tradition that bloopers would go up on danisnotintresting.

Dan’s phone beeped with a tweet from Phil wishing everyone a happy Christmas Eve Eve.

Dan found it quite unnecessary if he was being frank. Sure, you could wish people Merry Christmas on Christmas Day or even Christmas Eve but not the day before. Dan still found it so unpleasing to the eye that they had a day called Eve Eve. Autocorrect would try to point out your error of writing the same word twice but apparently it hadn’t met the odd name of the day before Christmas Eve. 

Phil wasn’t sharing any of Dan’s worries when he tweeted. He just wanted to let everyone following him know that he wished them a happy Christmas. It was Friday and the last day of work for a lot of people. Phil found it a bit mean that people wouldn’t have much time off in the run up to Christmas as a consequence of which days Christmas fell on. 

He also had a suspicion that his tweet would annoy Dan and he loved to annoy him. Combined with the festive emojis framing in the words and the use of caps lock, Phil reckoned that would set off Dan. Pleased with himself, he’d pocked the phone and returned to the festivities. 

The two of them talked again late at night before they went to sleep, on the phone this time. 

“Did you see my tweet?” Phil asked, when he suddenly remembered, interrupting Dan who was again ranting about how wonderful his family dog Colin was. 

“The Christmas Eve Eve tweet?” Dan asked. “Yeah, I saw it, Phil. Good on you being early for wishing everyone Merry Christmas. It’s not properly Christmas until two days,” Dan argued. 

“You can never be festive enough, or too early.”

“You’ll just forget to actually tweet something on Christmas.”

“No, I won’t. I’ll remember. Just you wait. I’ll make sure to keep everyone updated on how my Christmas is going as well.”

Dan chuckled and Phil could practically see how his smile would look despite being unable to physically see him. Hanging up felt odd. You got used to having someone right next to you.

Phil found himself silently wishing that they could spend Christmas together somehow. They couldn’t, obviously, and technically they saw each other enough to want a break form the other now and again but it was never really the case with them. 

They were good at respecting each other’s boundaries and they had their separate rooms that they could retreat to if they wanted. They mostly didn’t but on the rare occasions when they wanted to be completely alone, the other always respected that. 

You got used to breathing in the same air, so much it almost felt slightly like suffocating once you had to breathe in a different kind of air and the familiar element was across the country. 

The following day after stuffing his face with food, Phil’s jaw nearly dropped when he saw the dessert. It was goddamn glorious and he needed a photo of that. Dan wouldn’t believe him, that boy loved salted caramel and Phil wanted to give him food envy. 

Balancing the plate on one hand, to get a nice background of the Christmas tree, while taking the photo with the other hand had not been a good idea. Phil was uncoordinated at the best of times and there was a reason that Dan took all the selfies at meet and greets. Dan had gotten it down to a science. 

Phil’s family was very vocal about their worries of him dropping the dessert but Phil ignored them. He wanted a goddamn pretty photo of that log to show to Dan. He somehow managed to take the photo without dropping the whole thing, which was undoubtedly another Christmas miracle. It seemed December had been filled with them. We went to tweet he photo and tweeted a screen shot so he could make a joke on the “Who’s in this photo?” tagline beneath. He found it quite witty if he did say so himself. 

Satisfied he went back to the table to actually dig into delicious dessert. It didn’t take more than ten minutes before Phil’s phone buzzed with a reply from Dan and then another one shortly after. Phil could imagine Dan sat at with his family pulling up the Twitter app on his phone and seeing his tweet. He could practically hear the overbearing snort that Dan did whenever Phil did something that was slightly silly but also endearing. 

He would be told off from using his phone at the table, when he was supposed to focus on his family members. He always had an excuse though; being on social media was his job even though he doubted that his family could regard Phil replying to Dan as work. 

In his defence, they were business partners. They just happened to be talking about a salted caramel log. Phil pondered how to respond to Dan to agitate him the most. 

Dan had seen Phil’s tweet almost immediately and snorted with suppressed laughter. He used his phone as his lifeline in situations like this, where he was around too many people that didn’t get him. He knew he should stop alienating himself and go up and talk to his family but it was scary and he didn’t want their prying questions. Not one bit. 

He hesitated whether he should reply to Phil’s tweet. It was not unheard of them replying to each other’s tweets but it was always a bit odd. He should probably just text Phil, keep their exchange private rather than public for everyone to see. Then again, Dan had been losing his chill and boundaries more and more over during all the gamingmas videos. He simply didn’t care about keeping up appearances anymore. He just wanted to reply to Phil and he even double tweeted. 

Phil didn’t take long to reply to his replies and when Dan saw it, he snorted anew. He practically felt eyes turn towards him, the tall awkward guy who laughed at his phone. Phil was been intentionally using lowercase, just like Dan did for aesthetic reasons. He was making fun of him, as for the blogger comment. 

Dan secretly liked making things pretty, in beauty blogger style, as evident when he went a bit overboard with the presenting of their baking endeavours. Phil knew exactly how to push Dan’s buttons and wind him up. 

It felt comforting in a strange way that they could banter and share insider jokes while so far away from each other. It reminded him of being at home with Phil. 

It was only a few hours later when Dan got another notification and Phil had posted yet another photo. This time it was a rather odd Christmas decoration, which made Dan roll his eyes. He restrained himself and didn’t tweet a reply. Not twice within the span of a few hours. 

The Christmas decorations around the house were festive but Phil found some of them a bit odd. One particular actually freaked him out a bit and of course, he tweeted a photo of it. He’d promised that he’d keep everyone updated, even if it had been as a joke. Phil liked updating Twitter (Dan) with how things were going. 

The Santa oddly reminded Phil of Dan a bit. He was clinging onto time by his fingertips. Dan often questioned if anything mattered in the grand scheme of things and whether their time would just run out and none of it would have mattered at all. Phil sent Dan a text about it, because he was used to sharing his thoughts with Dan and he missed it, even if they had only been apart for a couple of days. 

Dan’s phone beeped with a text message this time and it was from Phil, of course. No one else would text him on Christmas Eve. Dan was slightly offended that Phil compared him to the distressing Santa, though he could suppose that the long limps resembled his a bit and maybe the soulless expression. 

They kept texting back and forward for a while until both of their families told the boys to put down their phones. It was easy lose track of time when you were chatting with someone you were so close with. 

Phil had put away the phone eventually. He had a lot to do actually and he felt slightly bad for neglecting his family, even momentarily, because he didn’t see them much. In his defence, he had made them play board games for hours on end previously. 

He still needed to do his wrapping. He should have done it at home with Dan but they had been too busy editing to make time for it. And Dan had procrastinated for too long anyway. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise because Phil wasn’t sure how everyone would react if he came with all his presents wrapped in the paper with their faces on from danandphilshop.com. Again.

He hid away the presents in his room and just tossed some wrapping paper over them for now. He’d wrap them later. It was not good to have been living with a serial procrastinator for this long; Dan had been rubbing off on him. He paused in the door way and glanced back at his bed. It looked like a human could be hidden underneath the wrapping paper. This was another perfect opportunity to share a photo from his day. He knew people liked when he tweeted and he never did it enough. He was actually quite enjoying documenting his day, in a few select snapshots. 

Phil was on fire with the tweeting today, Dan thought as he got another notification. “A festive dead body”? What was going on in that man’s head? Dan already could see the jokes from the phandom. Phil had finally killed Dan and he saw now hiding the body. 

That would of course imply that Dan was up north with Phil and his family in the first place. Dan’s heart warmed a bit at the thought of that. The Lesters had always been so lovely and accepting of him. 

They had only texted goodnight that day because Phil was practically ready to pass out after having finally gotten around to doing his wrapping at the very last minute. He made sure to let Dan know that he thought Dan had infected him with procrastination. 

Dan made the counter argument that he should either have built up a resilience or have been infected a long time ago based on how much time they spent together. 

Turns out, Phil did remember to tweet everyone a Merry Christmas and he did it in the same style as the Eve Eve tweet. Only now it was Christmas trees and sparkles as well as an added promise of wrapping people in tinsel. 

Dan and his family were done with opening presents by the time he saw the tweet and it made him smile. Phil had an actual fondness of tossing things around you, especially when he was either feeling festive or tipsy. Dan couldn’t count the times Phil had actually wrapped tinsel around him.

It had practically become a tradition for him to do so when they were decorating their home. He also would do sneak attacks with tinsel and wrap it tightly around Dan when he wasn’t “festive enough”. Phil was sure the tinsel worked because Dan would always smile so warmly, even if he did usually roll his eyes too. 

Phil should have known it was his presence rather than the tinsel that cheered Dan up. 

Two could play this tweet game and when Dan, ironically of course, dressed up in a Christmas jumper that matched Colin’s, he got someone to take a photo of him. Phil wasn’t allowed to be the only cute and festive one. Dan would do all he could to claim that. 

It was somewhat of a miracle that the photo turned out okay, because no one else had the patience to take dozens of photos in a row, other than Phil of course. Dan didn’t want to have to explain why he’d usually take a lot more than necessary just to have some to pick amongst. It was so damn easy picking out flaws on yourself and even though all the photos would be pretty much identical, you could probably find something wrong with most of them.  

So Dan only had a couple to chose from and it was sort of liberating. His jumper with weird fluffy balls attached to it looked absolutely ridiculous, both in real life and in the photo. Colin looked as cute as ever though and Dan liked taking photos with his dog, and it was nice being able to pull them out and look at them whenever he longed to have a furry friend in his life. 

It also helped that Phil did not have a family dog, despite loving them as much as Dan, and Dan wanted to tease Phil right back. Dan remembered the story of how Phil had wrote page after page about how he wanted a dog in the hopes that his effort would convince his parents. It hadn’t’. Dan posted it on Instagram first, then Twitter and finally Tumblr. 

Phil almost dropped his phone when he saw the photo. Dan looked so soft and Colin looked so adorable. Dan looked absolutely silly as well but Phil had always liked when Dan didn’t care what he wore and just lounged around at home. 

That boy had so much expensive designer clothing that Phil had stopped asking whether an item was chic and designer or old and tatted. He didn’t really understand fashion or was interested in it like Dan, but to Phil’s eye that jumper looked like a horrible mistake and yet suited Dan so well, which was evident how nicely it clung to his frame. 

Phil hadn’t met Colin often but he was always jealous that Dan got to come home to a dog. Phil knew how Dan used Colin to escape sometimes and by his own accounts, Colin would happily cuddle up next to Dan while his family was running around the house. Dan usually would talk about dogs more when he got back from his family and Phil wondered how long before they could make that an actual reality. 

Dan seemed to be staring into Phil’s soul in that photo and seeing him suddenly made Phil miss him a bit more. They’d be reunited before the New Year but it was still strange to be apart at all. 

Phil sent a tweet only a couple of hours later where he shared a photo of his David Beckham festive scent that he always used over the holidays. Dan had said that he smelled funny when he’d come back home last year and if Dan could taunt Phil with a photo of him hanging out with his dog, then Phil could remind him that he’d smell like David Beckham once he came back. 

Phil hadn’t responded to Dan’s dog photo, neither on Twitter or privately, and Dan was sure he was sulking over how adorable he looked in matching outfits with his dog. The only one else that Dan had ever matched with, out of his own free will, was Phil on the rare occasions they wore the same style of clothing. Sometimes, it had been pre-planned and other times it had been a coincidence. 

However, that was without mentioning how they borrowed each other’s clothes. It was nice to share a home with someone of the same size. 

Dan didn’t see the showing in David Beckham scent tweet until a little while later and he scuffed when he did. Tradition, his arse. Maybe the man should stick to being a footballer and not make scents. Dan liked Phil’s natural scent and that “festive” bottle always drowned it out.

Phil was feeling on a row with the tweets again today. He knew everyone and Dan would be seeing them, despite being with their own families and it was nice to think that you could still connect even when far apart. 

When it got to the part of the evening where the fortune telling fish came out, Phil was already feeling a bit worn down. He was not a child by any measure anymore but he’d slept a bit uneasily the night before Christmas Day. He always did and it was more a case of missing someone rather than wanted to stay up to catch Santa putting presents under the tree.

Phil had sort of expected his fish to move its head and tail, just like it had done last year. However, much to his dismay it was completely still in his hand. It didn’t move one bit. It didn’t even wiggle. 

If it was motionless, it meant that it was a dead one. Was it the fish or Phil who was supposedly dead?

Upon the thought, he was reminded of Dan and how the boy liked to keep his “dark” aesthetic and joke about being dead inside. Dan was clever and introspective, which caused him to ponder too much and something feel consumed by all the bad things going on but he was far from dead inside. 

He was a light as much as Phil was, though Phil felt more comfortable showing it physically in smiles and touches. Dan was better at expressing himself through his words and masked his nonverbal clues sometimes. He didn’t want people to be able to see him because it made him feel vulnerable. Unless it was Phil, of course, Phil always had a separate category when it came to Dan. 

Phil drafted up another tweet where  _he_  joked about being dead inside. This was the year of rebranding and he might as well go all out with teasing Dan about all the weird things that were associated with the brunet. 

Dan got told off for pulling out his phone yet again but in his defence, Phil had tweeted. He felt oddly like it was back in 2009 where he’d obsess over everything and anything Phil posted on his social media. He cringed when he looked back at how he used to talk to Phil but at the same time he couldn’t make himself to regret it. 

He couldn’t be mad at his younger self or criticise how he did things because that version of him set everything in motion that would lead to the life that Dan was now leading and it was a happy one. 

Dan frowned at Phil’s tweet, both because Phil was making fun of his “branding” but also because that damn slip of plastic couldn’t be more wrong. Phil was the most alive person Dan had ever known and he practically radiated life force. 

Phil made it easier for Dan to breathe. Back in the day when he dropped out of university, it was Phil who held him together when the doubt and the worry threatened to overwhelm him. Phil was the one who pulled him back from his existential crisis moments and the blue-eyed man is so damn alive. 

If you could sue a fortune telling fish, Dan probably would. Dan sent a text to Phil, in a sarcastic tone, about how the fish nailed the answer. Phil replied back with a handful of emojis. 

When Dan got around to doing the fortune telling fish with his family, his answer was radically different from Phil’s but it was not one that would do good to be shared on social media. Instead, Dan checked on the PINOF 8 bloopers that he scheduled to go up. 

His parents moaned a bit about him “working” on Christmas Day, though Dan could practically hear the quotation marks in the air when they say it. Dan didn’t care; he’d leant to deal with it. He promised his subscribers that the blooper video would be up soon and the day after gamingmas ended was the earliest he was able. He didn’t want to open his editing programme for the rest of the year after the month they had. 

Besides, it made a nice Christmas present for their subscribers and Dan wanted to give them something to go to that might relax them. He knew a lot of them would be struggling with this time, trapped in their family’s house, who might not accept who they are or the situation just triggered them. These bloopers could be a little gift from him and Phil. 

They were essentially another PINOF video because PINOF itself was so much blooper like content. There were a lot of cute scenes in this one as well and top banter, just like you could expect. To quote PINOF 1, it’s supposed to be cheesy. 

Phil retweeted the PINOF 8 bloopers tweet almost immediately. Him and Dan had been texting back and forth, which has mostly consisted of Dan bashing his parent’s slow wifi. Phil would always bring up the argument that Dan should just buy them some new damn wifi and Dan would always say that they wouldn’t let him.

They watched their audience lose their shit as usual over anything PINOF related. It’s actually lovely that they cared so much about it and it was part of the reason that Phil insisted on doing it still, while Dan had let AmazngDan die long ago. 

Phil liked to celebrate milestones and other than marking their first collab, it was also the first time they hung out. Dan had travelled all the way to Manchester and it had been a journey he’d come to do so many times over the following months. 

It marked the start of the World of Dan and Phil, which was now so much more than just a silly Q&A video. 

They missed watching the meltdown with each other. For PINOF 8, they sat in their lounge lurking on social media together and smiling happily that such a simple concept and a silly video could do all this. 

They talked for over two hours on Skype that evening, too late into the night but neither of them cared. It wasn’t like they hadn’t got a record with 5+ hours. 

Boxing Day rolled around quickly and at the same time all too slowly. Both boys felt a bit sad that the holidays went by so fast but at the same time it would mean they’d get to go properly home soon.

It was odd how at some point in your life, your home would stop being the place where you grew up and lived with your family. It would be a place of your own that you shared with people of your own choice. You’d always feel connected to your childhood home but your true home would be somewhere else, with someone else. 

Back when Phil was a weird kid, he thought that Boxing Day had something to do with boxers, like the ones that would punch each other in a fenced off square. Inspired by that he sets up a little “death match” using the poll feature on Twitter. He had way too much fun picking names of his boxers and coming up with a backstory for all of them. 

It’s such as damn Phil thing to set up a poll based on a pun on the day. Dan’s eyes might have gotten stuck if he rolled them back any further. Dan had no doubt that Phil had designed at little story to go along with all the crazy names he’d picked. 

Dan clicked Janet out of spite. Wasn’t that the name Phil said in the Akinator video where he questioned whether Dan was his best friend because he supposedly had gotten chummy with some lady from the shop?

Dan feel a surge of fondness remembering because a moment later Phil had proudly announced that Dan was his BFFL. For life. It was a term that had scared Dan when he was younger, heck he still had trouble just picking a favourite thing because he might change his mind later. Yet, it wasn’t odd for them to talk about forever. 

Dan texted Phil telling him that he’d be coming after Phil if his pick didn’t win in the poll on Twitter. 

Phil pondered which character that Dan would have gone for amongst the four options. Probably Janet, the old lady. Dan loved an underdog. 

Surely enough by the time Boxing Day came to an end and the results were up, Dan called him to claim his victory. 

“When will I get my knitting tutorial, Philip? It isn’t like our neighbours think we’re weird enough already now we’re officially turning into old ladies.”

“I don’t even know how to knit, Dan,” Phil said and yawned. It was past midnight and he should be sleeping but who was he kidding? His sleeping schedule was as messed up as Dan’s. 

“Well, then maybe you should stop with all the empty promises, Philly. Some day you’re bound to get sued for false advertisement,” Dan said and laughed hollowly. He sounded worn down. “Are you sad Christmas is over?”

“A bit,” Phil admitted. “It’s such a festive time and it feels like December only started a couple of days ago. I guess we spent most of our time filming and editing. I don’t mind though, I’m so proud we were able to pull of gamingmas and finished it with PINOF bloopers. Great work with that one, Dan.”

“Yeah, I’m always happy to prove people wrong. It’s a great feeling. I just hope that they don’t expect it next year.”

“Who knows? They practically forced us to repeat our DanAndPhilCRAFTS joke. We should not question their power. Honestly though, how are you holding up?”

“I’m okay,” Dan answered. “I’m just ready to go home now.”

“It’s won’t be long,” Phil reassured him. 

The day after Boxing Day was where life when back to normal for most people but a lot still clutched onto the Christmas holiday as tightly as possible. Dan and Phil still both felt like it was Christmas, as they were still at home with their families, doing festive and homely stuff.

When Phil got dressed in the morning he pulled out a new jumper he’d gotten, a red one with asymmetrical black spots and he put it on. He really liked the look of it and he made a mental note to thank the person, who gave him it again. 

The lighting in his room was absolutely perfect and he found himself doing something that wasn’t a normal occurrence. He sat down on the floor and took selfies. 

It wasn’t that Phil didn’t know how to take selfies, despite Dan teasing him for that, it was just that it felt odd posting a photo of his face unless it also had another agenda. He didn’t just take random photos, not normally. 

He felt a bit insecure about posting one, even if a witty caption was forming in his head already. He might as well send the photo by Dan. Had they been at home, he’d have just walked up to him and asked if it looked okay to post. It was annoying having to wait around for a reply. 

*Can I post this on Instagram?* Phil’s text read with a photo attached. 

Dan almost choked on his Ribena. Phil looked perfectly lit and his eyes blue as ever and staring right into his soul. Phil should have given Dan some warning before sending him the most damn perfect selfie in the world. Maybe Dan should ease back on the joke that Phil didn’t know how to take selfies because he was clearly mistaken. 

Dan got almost annoyed with Phil that he didn’t just post it immediately, probably only sending it by Dan for approval because he was insecure about posting a selfie that didn’t have any other purpose than to show how goddamn pretty Phil Lester was. 

In Dan’s opinion, that was more than enough purpose. 

*post it you look like an angel*

Phil got Dan’s text and smiled, despite the lack of emojis. Dan had a love/hate relationship those things and would most often leave them out. Phil let himself wonder what kind of emoji Dan would have used if he had been in that headspace. 

Phil posted the photo on Instagram and shared it on Twitter and Tumblr afterwards. His mentions when crazy and he almost blushed with all the compliments that came flooding in. He didn’t think of himself as “pretty, beautiful, gorgeous” and all the other lovely adjectives that were thrown at him. 

It felt good but it wasn’t on par when Dan called him adorable or precious. 

He’d much rather be complimented on his personality than his exterior. How he looked would change as he grew older, he tried not thinking about how he was turning 30 next month, but his personality would not change. He’d always be Phil.

When Dan and Phil finally got back home to London after having spent a week in the company of their families, they clung on a little tighter in their greeting hug than they usually would. 

None of them had to say that they’d missed the other. It was implicit in their actions, both the exchange that went on right now but also how they’d behaved through all the Christmas days. 

They had been tweeting more because they couldn’t spend Christmas together but it all the photos had helped bridge the physical gap between them. They had been indirectly soppy and the other had understood the underlying tones of every tweet. 

It felt good to be  _home_  after having been away for Christmas.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t mean for this to turn out so long, but damn that was a lot of tweets to incorporate. Obviously, I don’t claim to have any knowledge on the real intention behind the tweets but this is just harmless interpretation. 
> 
> Find more of my stories under my profile or at https://www.wattpad.com/SecretNRB & http://secretlywritingstories.tumblr.com
> 
> Thank you so much for reading. As always, feedback is highly appreciated. Come talk to me @natigail on Tumblr or use the comment section below.


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